


Fools Rush In

by kiddywonkus



Series: Limited Queries [3]
Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Gen, M/M, don't ever let Volker play matchmaker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-06-08 01:55:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6834328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiddywonkus/pseuds/kiddywonkus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rush has been almost reasonable to work with, and once Volker figures out why, he's determined to keep it going.</p><p>Alternate title: "Volker Complains It All" or "The World According to Volker"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fools Rush In

Things were going all right for Dale Volker. Or at least as well as they could. Sure, he was still stuck on an ancient ship that was falling to pieces in a galaxy so far away Earth didn’t even know it existed, but he had gotten used to that fact now. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to have a beer after work, or the blissful feeling of falling asleep to the news.

He didn’t really miss it anymore. Well, he did miss it. But the feeling of wanting what he couldn’t have had been with him so consistently that he had forgotten it was there at all.

Really, if there was anything he missed, it wasn’t the smell of bacon, or a day out hiking. It was a proper HR department, or a chance to apply for a different job.

One would think that working on a starship would be an astrophysicist’s dream job, but that sort of depended on who you worked for. Unfortunately, being an astrophysicist on a starship meant you were stuck with whoever was in charge.

Volker was pretty used to leading projects himself, anyway. He was a PhD for god’s sakes. He knew how to research independently, and pull long hours just to so he could prove to himself he could do it. Volker didn’t need handholding to get things done. But now, he felt like a grad student with a particularly honery advisor. Yes, on Icarus, he still worked under Rush, but it was always tangential to his projects. Some sort of add-on that would eventually end up on the lead scientist’s desk, but it rarely meant he had to work with him. It mean a meeting once a month where Rush would barely pay attention, tell everyone good work, and then stalk out to work on the ninth chevron. It meant terse emails with a tone you couldn’t even guess at. Was he pissed? Or just busy?

Maybe both?

Truthfully, Rush wasn’t really all that bad on Icarus. Sure, he was intense, and once he sent back an equation Volker had spent months on with large red circle over an area that was inconsistent with his own calculations and scrawled a large F in the right corner, but that was what it was like when you worked with scientists. You had to have thick skin, and Volker thought he had that.

That is until he actually had to work with Rush. Day in. Day out. In the same small room where he could judgmentally look over Volker’s shoulder.

Maybe, he thought, Rush was bearable to work with on Icarus because HR could keep a leash on him. There were always complaints, and threats of workshops and anger management to keep in line. Up here on Destiny though, Rush was almost a god- not that Volker would ever admit that-- and he was more of an old testament god, the kind with commandants that were impossible to follow.

Thou shalt not ask questions. Honor Rush’s time. Remember the work day, and it keep quiet and productive. Thou shalt not piss Rush off.

Rush is the lead scientist, your god, and you shall have no other lead scientists before him. Especially if that scientist is related to Telford in any way.

This was all beside the point though. Volker was not going to dwell on what a bad boss Rush usually was because his relationship with the man seemed to be on the mend, which meant he was having an exceptional week.

Maybe longer than a week, but he wasn’t sure. He only noticed things were going all right when they were trying to solve the problem of the shuttle’s propulsion systems, relative time, and the course through a gravity well.

Volker was actually pretty excited about it the whole dilemma, even if it meant way too much mental math just to possibly get some fruit and water from a planet on the other side. Again, astrophysicist. Of course he was excited. Gravity wells were conceptual models, but you could literally see space bending around the planet here, yet no evidence of a black hole.

How freaking cool was that? Volker had never seen anything like, and from Rush’s look of bafflement, and Brody’s wide eyes, they never had even considered it a possibility.

Sadly, there were other pressing needs… like getting the shuttle through it with the changes in relative time to get food, and have it back before the ship went to FTL because Rush still didn’t feel comfortable totally taking command of its flight pattern. Volker would just have to capture as much data as he could, and look it over later.

“But would it matter if we lightened the load?” Volker asked idly, immediately cringing.Of course that wasn’t going to work. There was no point if they didn’t get more food. It was just a thought, and he was used to spitballing in his own lab. Sometimes stupid questions led to brilliant answers. Any second, Rush was going to explode, and he didn’t feel like dealing with that. Well, he never felt like dealing with it, but that day, he was tired after a twelve-hour shift welding in a spacesuit, and his bed was pulling on him more strongly than gravity could.

Instead, Rush just looked up at him, and said, “No.”

That was it.

Volker swallowed.

Just no. No pronouncements on wasted time, or having an idiot working for him. No glares, or exasperated sighs. Just no. To anyone else, they might have thought it rude. To Volker, it felt like being paid a huge compliment.

As if he wasn’t sure it was real, he glanced over at Eli, who only stared back at him wide-eyed.

“Did that just happen?” He mouthed.

Disbelieving, Eli nodded slowly.

Well, at least Volker still had his sanity.

After that, Rush had asked for a calculation, which immediately compiled an error. It took them an hour to unravel it and figure out it failed because he transposed a number. Nervously, Volker handed him the new equation, and Rush took it and said, “Thank you.”

It was almost horrifying.

When Rush left the room, Eli tip-toed over to him. “Do you think we stumbled into an alternate universe?”

“If we did, can we stay?” Volker asked.

“I don’t know… what if in this universe, it isn’t just Rush that changed… what if we go back to Earth and find out there are more differences? Like they never made _Star Wars_. I wouldn’t want to live in that universe.”

Volker was still feeling the jolt of adrenaline that begged him to flee instead of handing Rush the calculations, so he only managed a weak laugh. “Geez.”

“I know how you feel. I was late two days ago, and all he said was ‘Don’t do it again’, and then he inquired about my sleeping habits.”

“Why am I so scared?” Volker rubbed his hand on his chest just over his heart. It was still beating fast. “Shouldn’t I be happy?”

“Yeah, man. I feel exactly the same.”

Outside the door, they heard the familiar, rapid steps of Rush coming back, and they both jumped as they returned to their consoles.

 

* * *

 

 

“Is this what Rush in a good mood feels like?” Volker asked, holding a cup of Brody’s alcoholic abomination just shy of his lips.Calling it moonshine didn’t capture just how alcoholic it was. Maybe starshine? Supernovashine? After only one cup, he felt like he was in some sort of time-dilated drunken stupor.

“He seems pretty normal to me,” Park said, pulling a face as she took a swig of the moonshine.

“Yeah, but how can anyone get mad at you?”

“Oh, plenty of people do. I think the difference is I know it isn’t about me.”

“What?”

“Most of the time, when people lash out, it has nothing to do with you.” When she saw Volker’s uncomprehending expression, she continued, “Like, think about the telemarketers.”

Volker raised his drink. “Do I have  to? The one good thing about Destiny is that we don’t have to deal with those anymore.”

Park smiled, set down her cup, and adjusted her glasses. “Yeah, right? So, anyway, you yell at them. It’s not because of that person. It’s usually because you had a crappy day at work, or you’re hungry, or you’re thinking about how to make up with your girlfriend, and they waltz unknowingly in and bam! You just yell at them, as if they made your night worse. Like that telephone call alone made the world suck. You could have politely just said you’re not interested, and it would have taken the same amount of time. But nope, you yell because you had a shitty day and this person didn’t help.”

“So you’re saying that when Rush yells, it’s not about me.”

“Yeah. But not just you. It’s me too. He yells because he’s frustrated that he can't fix a situation, and you just happen to be around. And Young has him permanently in a bad mood.”

“Okay… so you’re saying it’s Young’s fault I’m yelled at.”

Park laughed, and Volker smiled at her. How Park kept it together, even after her blindness, always amazed Volker. He thought she would hate Rush, but instead she drank with him after a shift, almost defended the man, and pretended that she didn’t run into every other stand in the hydroponics bay.

Park took another drink, and stuck out her tongue. “Ugh. This will never taste good.”

Volker tilted his head, and raised his glass. “Yet we still drink it.”

Park nodded. “That we do. By the way, where’s Adam? He wasn’t here last week either, and he never misses bullshitting after work.”

“Don’t know. Rush probably has him working on something…”

Park leaned back and shrugged. “I’d say ‘poor Brody’ if I didn’t think he enjoyed it.”

“It’s probably easier to like working when Rush barely acknowledges you exist. God, wouldn’t I love to have that.”

“I don’t know…” Park mused, pursing her lips briefly. “Isn’t that almost worse? Like you don’t deserve his attention?”

Squaring his jaw, Volker shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t know.”

Apparently, Park also didn’t have the answer, so they lapsed into a comfortable silence as they let the alien alcohol warm their stomachs. Volker wondered if Park’s thoughts went to the same things his did when his thoughts couldn’t be occupied by work, booze, or starship gossip. Maybe hers also tried to piece together the three years they never felt, but everyone else had lived. The fact that they were stuck on Destiny, or they started a flourishing civilization that had been wiped out. This was their life from now on. The comforts of eating Top Ramen at three in the morning replaced by the desire to eat a tasteless gruel even when you’ve consumed all your rations. The anticipation of lazing around for a weekend supplanted by an overwhelming need to unravel too many mysteries.

Maybe her mind was on her relationship with Greer, after having seeing how long they would be committed in an alternate reality, but he didn’t think so.

Park’s mind always went somewhere else that his had trouble following. Where he saw darkness, she saw light. But now… who knew what she saw. Her positive attitude blinded him sometimes, and he realized he had never once asked her how she felt since stasis.

Volker stared at his glass, swirling the liquid around. “How are you doing though?”

Park jumped slightly at the question. He couldn’t see her eyes behind her dark shades, so he wasn’t sure if it was surprise, or discomfort. “Everything is still really blurry and dark. TJ thinks that this might be as good as it gets.”

“I'm sorry it happened at all.”

“It was my own fault. Besides, how many people can say they looked into the heart of the star.”

Of course Park would say that. “Sometimes I think you're too good for this world.”

“No. Don’t put me on that pedestal. I’m human like the rest of us. I get frustrated, and angry too. I almost yelled at my new assistant today for something that wasn’t even his fault. Faking it just works better. In grad school I was convinced I was accepted by mistake, but I didn't want anyone to know. So I just pretended that I could do it if I tried hard enough and it worked.” Park pursed her lips, and brought a hand up to rub her eyes as she leaned unsteadily to the right. “Shoot. I'm getting sleepy drunk. Walk me back?”

Volker rubbed the back of his neck.  He was still bone-tired from his welding excursion the last time they dropped out of FTL.  Even though he wanted to talk more to keep his thoughts about Destiny at bay, he could not deny that sleep sounded good.

“Give me your arm.” Park held out her hands, obviously expecting compliance.

Sighing, Volker collected the cups. “Give me a sec. Gotta get these to the dishwasher first.” He walked over toward the small alcove, and placed the cups down, and then returned to Park. Six months ago -or was it three and half years ago?- he would have jumped at the chance to walk Park anywhere, and if their shoulders brushed, then maybe it was a sign that there was more between them. But knowing the events of Novus Mondus made Volker finally let go, and it made him feel lighter, and much happier. He was almost glad to not have to be nervous about their future, and wonder what Park’s intentions were.

Now, he knew it was only friendship, and he found that comforting. Friendship was just as important as romance, though he still couldn’t see what she saw in Greer. That could have been just because the most Volker ever saw of Greer was down the barrel of his gun.

She leaned on him as they walked at of the bar. “You know what I was saying,  right?  Even if you think Rush is mad at you, just fake it like he’s not.  He's probably not anyway, but if he is, what good is it to just shut down? It just proves him right. So just fake it, Dale.”

Volker inclined his head. “I suppose.”

The hallways were quiet midshift, and it seemed like only he and Park had decided on a nightcap after work. They turned a corner and a flash of movement caught Volker’s eye from right fork. It was Brody, walking down the hall toward the gate room next to someone else.Though the other person was largely masked in shadow, there was no mistaking the wisps of Rush’s unruly hair, and the familiar silhouette of his vest making his lean body seem a bit more square than it really was.

Volker scrutinized them, trying to figure out what they were doing. Rush should have been off shift, though it didn’t surprise him that the man was still working.  He never seemed to stop.  

Rush hand snaked out just as the two turned the corner, his pale hand visible in the dark as it reached around Brody’s waist. It was brief, but Volker was sure he saw it move up and down.

“Why did we stop?” Park asked, her hand extended in front of her.

Volker gaped down the hallway. “Did you see that?”

Park punched him lightly. “Very funny.”

“No seriously…” Volker stopped. “Sorry. It's just that…”

“What?” Worry tinged her voice.

“I swore I saw…”

“You going to spit it out?”

“Never mind. Let’s just get you back.” Volker said, pulling her down toward her quarters.

Park frowned at him.”How much did you drink?”

“Probably too much.”

 

* * *

 

 

The mess was quiet as Volker sat down with Brody to eat their protein. Rush had let them sleep in as a reward for being ahead of schedule. Frankly, it freaked Volker out.

But Volker didn’t have a lot of time to think about it as he watched Brody shovel in spoonful after spoonful of white protein mush. “What did you do last night?” he asked, pulling out his spoon and then setting it back down again. He wasn’t hungry.

Brody took another bite and shrugged. “Putzed around on the Stargate.”

“Alone?”

“No... “ Brody side-eyed him. “With Rush. Why?”

“Well, I thought I saw you, but I wasn’t sure.” Volker grimaced. It wasn’t a lie exactly, but it felt like one. “It was pretty late last night. Way past your shift.”

“I didn’t have a whole lot else to do last night.”

“Not true, I invited you to drink with me and Lisa.”

“But I had already committed to Rush to spend time on the Stargate. I’ve done this before.”

“I know but…”

“But what?”

“I just… you’re going to laugh when I say this. Well, I thought Rush was like your lover for a second.”

Brody didn’t answer. He scraped inside of his bowl with the spoon, ferreting out the last bits of sustenance.

“So wait…” Volker’s eyes were wide as he stared at Brody who was definitely not laughing with him about the idea for a reason.

Brody waited.

“You and Rush....” Volker’s voice goes up half an octave.

Brody still waited.

“Are like dating?” Volker was so confused he didn’t have the sense to feel horrified. Brody just shrugged like it was no big deal, which it clearly was. How could it not be? It was Rush. Volker didn’t even think that man liked other people.

Setting down his metal bowl with an audible clank, Brody said in his infuriatingly deadpan way, “Yeah. We go to the movies, and then get dinner. He kisses me goodnight, like a gentlemen. Wants to meet my parents, I think.”

Volker couldn’t make heads or tails of what Brody was saying. Was Brody being sarcastic? “So you’re not.”

“Can’t really date on a starship with almost no amenities.” Brody shifted his weight in his seat, and looked… dear god… he looked nervous. He was definitely avoiding the question, like he did when truth or dare sessions at the bar got too intense. What Volker had learned from those games is that Brody did very little that could be considered salacious, which was no surprise since he won most games of Never Have I Ever too.

Volker swallowed, trying make his throat work to ask the question he does not really want the answer to. “Okay, so… You’re like… together?”

Brody shrugged without looking at him, which was basically Brody for yes.

“But how?” Volker almost yelled, unable to keep his incredulity at bay.

“The normal way, I guess.”

“But he’s Rush.”

“Yeah.” Brody raised his eyebrows, clearly not understanding what Volker was implying.

“Rush.” Volker said again with emphasis, because was Brody just not getting this?

“Yeah.” Brody laughed nervously. “If he wasn’t Rush, I wouldn’t be with Rush.”

“I’m just…”

Brody stood up, smiled weakly, and patted Volker on the back. “Yeah, I know, buddy.”

“Wait, where are you going?”

“I gotta go check out the power fluctuations over by hydroponics.”

“You’re not escaping me.” Volker stalked after him, leaving his mostly full bowl of protein mush at the table.

“Don’t you have work to do? Rush’ll be pissed if diagnostics don’t get done.”

“He’s been in a good mood the last week, so I’ll take my chances. How long has this been going on?”

Brody stopped, and looked up as if he wass trying to remember. “It’s been kind of coming to a head for awhile depending on timelines and if you count stasis, but officially?”

Volker nods.

“A bit longer than a week, I think.” Brody walked off, letting the Volker work out the implications of that.

A simple calculation whizzed through Volker’s mind. They had been dating a  week. Rush had been in a good mood for a week. Ergo...

Volker rushed to catch up with Brody. “So, uh… what do you two do?”

“Not really your business.”

“I know we don’t have Red Lobsters, but surely you do something that could be date-like.”

Brody knitted his eyebrows as he looked a Volker, concern clearly written in his features. “You think Red Lobster is where you take dates? You’re more hopeless than I thought…”

“What’s wrong with Reb Lobster?”

“The last time I went back to Earth, Beyonce said that it’s where you go after you hook up... Though, mostly it’s where my grandma wanted to go, so…”

“So? Fine. Whatever. It’s not like I can take anyone to Red Lobster anyway.”

“Maybe you going to Destiny was the right thing for you.”

“Come on, what do you do?”

“Work, I guess.”

“Just work?”

“Well not just…”

Volker held up a hand. “Stop. Don’t finish that.”

Brody chuckled throatily.

“Whatever it is, please keep it up. He’s being nice to me.”

“You think him begrudgingly accepting your existence is being nice to you?”

“Yeah, for me, it’s like he’s dropping by with chocolate chip cookies on a Saturday morning.”

“Oh, poor Dale.” Brody patted him on the shoulder. “But I don’t know where this is going, and I don’t really know what we’re doing so… no promises.”

“Of course you don’t. You haven’t gone on any dates, and you’re not delineating between work and personal. I know man. I thought me and this girl Mindy were doing really well, but then she was like ‘I wasn’t even sure we were dating anymore because we only saw each other work’ and she ended up dating this Lieutenant Ackerman- who, by the way, looks just like me. Jokes on her though. He’s dead now.”

“That is probably the worst thing I’ve ever heard you say, and I didn’t think you could top Red Lobster. Anyway, you’re not being fair. Didn’t you die in an alternate timeline?”

“So did you. Twice.”

“When was the second time?”

“When we found those weird Kinos next to Rush’s skull.”

“Oh yeah. That was kind of cool.”

“Yeah. It was. I mean, sucks to be the past iteration of Brodys, but you’re not, so it all works out.”

“And it sucks to die of kidney failure, but you didn’t, so it all works out.”

The two snorted in laughter, and Volker missed this. Brody has only been gone from his social life a week, and he already missed the man. That thought made his gut twist. Was he going to have to choose between Rush being nice to him, or his friendship with Brody?

 

* * *

 

 

“Don’t be stupid,” Park said, carefully feeling the leaves on a plant before spraying it with a homemade fertilization solution. “I’m dating Greer, and I hang out with you plenty. We’re doing it right now, in fact.”

“Okay.” Volker frowned, mostly because he didn’t know if he could compare Park and Brody in the same terms. After all, ask them the same question, and you we’re likely to get two different responses. Brody would say things were going terrible because they only had 30% shields. Park would say it was great for the same reason.

“But you’re right. If Rush is being cool because of it, we have got to keep it going.”

“So what do we do?”

“Um… Well, I guess first we have to make sure they both have time off at the same time.”

Volker sighed. “Rush controls the schedule.”

“So, we switch shifts. I can’t, obviously, since I haven’t figured out how to rewire things with very little eyesight. You could though. Oh darn, you got a bad headache. You’re sure it will be fine tomorrow, so you’ll do a double, and voila he gets a day off. The evening Rush is off. Blammo. Done.”

Volker pursed his lips and thought about it. Finally, he nodded. “Worth a shot.”

 

* * *

 

 

“How’s the headache, man?” Eli asked, looking up from his console when Volker came in.

“Better.” He pulled out the console, and opened his calculations on life support and shields. Movement from the right side of the room caught his eye, and he couldn’t help but throw his arms up. “Dude. Brody. Why are you here?”

Brody stood stock still, clearly surprised by Volker’s outburst. “Wanted to finish some projects. Does it matter?”

“You’re at least going to take the evening off, right?”

Another shrug. “Maybe.”

Rush looked up from his own console. “I could use your calculations, Dr. Volker. I was expecting them yesterday, so as quick as you can, please.”

Painfully, Volker smiled at Rush and nodded. “Sure, coming up.” Rush said please. He honest to god said please, and Brody was over in the corner trying to ruin it by working when he could be sprucing up for a mutual night off with his… boyfriend? They weren’t there yet, right? Not after a week. Well, whatever Rush was to Brody, he should have been in his quarters trying to dewrinkle his shirt or something.

Brody wandered in and out of the bridge over the course of a few hours, his clothes and face getting dirtier every time.

Volker swiveled around in his chair, unable to look at the math on the screen anymore. “You might need to wash up,” he said as Brody came in again with a large stain of grease streaking across his cheek.

“Hm?” Brody barely paid attention as he checked something on the navigation console.

“You have a smudge of grease on your face.”

Brody touched his cheek, and looked at his finger. “So?”

“Nothing. So.. umm.. not going to do anything with the day off I gave you?”

“Um… just the usual.”

Volker glared over at Rush, who wasn’t even paying attention. Instead, he was looking over Chloe’s shoulder, pointing at some numbers as he explained a concept in theoretical mathematics.

Brody just looked at Volker like he was being crazy. “So... yeah...Well, anyway. I’m going to work on the jammed door in the next section we opened up.” He sort of backed away, like he thought turning around would invite Volker to pounce on him for no reason.

“How is that fun?” Volker called after Brody, but he was already through the doors.

Volker stewed. The last thing he wanted to do was work a double shift for a man that was still working anyway.

Frustratingly, Rush stayed almost until the end of Volker’s shift. There was maybe an hour left, right at the point Volker didn’t feel like he look at another number in Ancient. His brain felt so tired, it took his body with it into fatigue, and he longed for bed.

The second Rush stepped out the door, and it closed behind him, Volker collapsed on his console. “Finally. I thought he’d never leave.”

“Uh, doesn’t he usually work more hours than he’s assigned?” Chloe asked.

“Yeah, but…”

“I get it though. It’s nice to not have the boss looking over your shoulder.”

Volker tilted his head in agreement. “When Rush doesn’t work, where does he go?”

“Uh… I think he sleeps? But not always. We usually talk in the middle of the night. I think he just always works.”

“This is never going to work.”

“What won’t?”

Volker shot up in his chair, and clamped his mouth shut. He didn’t know if he should tell anyone. Well, aside from Park. But of course he was going to tell Park. If he told Chloe, though, it was definitely going to get to Matt, and it was going to get to Young, and then there would be an HR disaster that would probably break the two up, and he needed them to be together. He did not want to deal with the Rush from before, now that he knew the man was capable of some civility.

Chloe tilted her head quizzically. “Need help on the equation?”

Eagerly, Volker nodded, happy to have a reason for his outburst.

“You know, he’s not that scary.”

“I’m not scared of him.”

“Yeah you are.”

“I’m not.” Volker knew he sounded like a six-year-old, but he was not going to admit to the 20-something wonder math kid that she was right.

It didn’t matter. Chloe had already figured it out. “You know... He likes people who stand up to him.”

“I think he likes people who don’t talk to him best.”

“I don’t think that’s true. Okay, what is this derivative for?”

“I’m not sure. I saw this energy fluctuation happening when we screwed around with shields last time, and I was testing to see if it was related to life support.”

Chloe nodded, and frowned at his work, her eyes scanning the data. “Maybe we should isolate that fluctuation before determining if it’s related.”

Relieved at the change of subject, Volker frowned at his screen. “Can’t. Only happens when we’re messing with it, and Rush is trying not to mess with it until he has everything right.”

“Why can’t you just give him this then?”

Volker rolled his eyes.

Chloe pursed his lips. “Right. He thinks you're incompetent.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t think you are, and for what it’s worth, I don’t really think he does either.”

Volker didn’t know what to say to that, so he didn’t say anything.

“Actually,” Chloe added softly. “I wanted to thank you for letting me look at this. I mean, I know it kind of sucks to have be able to do this things without having to work for it like the rest of you did. So thanks for including me. I want to work hard and be valuable, and that starts with knowing why I know the things I know.”

Volker opened his mouth, and quickly shut it. Then, he smiled and looked at her. “You can ask me for help anytime.”

Chloe smiled back. “Thanks.”

It was petty, but he was glad she didn’t offer him the same.

 

* * *

 

 

Volker came onto the bridge bleary-eyed, and sleepy though he had a good night’s rest. The only other person there was Eli, which surprised him. Maybe Rush took a day off?

“Did you see Rush last night?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Eli rolled his eyes as made a _hmph_ sound. “He and Brody were busy second-guessing all my equations.”

Volker threw up his hands and hung his head.

“Geez. Why are you so upset? They weren’t doing it to you.”

“You don’t understand.” Volker sighed. He really just could not keep this a secret and hope to succeed. “Haven’t you noticed that Rush has been a good mood for a bit?”

“Yeah. I just figured that cryostasis reset him to some sort of previous Rush where he wasn’t moody all the time.”

“It’s not that.”

“Okay… Then why?”

“It’s because he and Brody got together.”

Eli stared at him, his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

Scratching the back of his neck, Volker said, “Yeah. And I think as long as they stay together, things will be easier. The only problem is they won’t go on dates.”

“Hold on. Stop. I’m still stuck on your premise. Why do you think Brody and Rush are... whatever you just said they were?”

“I saw them… touching.”

“Rush touched someone?”

“I know, right?”

“But maybe it was a ‘good’ job pat. Like, that one time he had me stick my arm in the event horizon because he thought maybe it would stop the ship? He gave me a good job pat then.”

Volker shook his head, now realizing how extreme one had to be to get Rush’s approval. “No, like on the waist.”

“Okay, that still might not mean anything. Maybe he stumbled.”

“Brody confirmed it.”

“But how?”

“Look, I have no idea. It happened when we weren’t looking.”

“I just don’t know man… Maybe we are in alternate reality. _Star Wars_ better still exist when I go home next.”

Volker couldn’t really discount they were in an alternate universe. Maybe that weird gravity well was more than they thought. But it didn’t matter. Whatever universe this was, they were in it now, and they needed Brody and Rush to keep doing their weird dating thing that made absolutely no sense, and kind of made Volker sick to his stomach if he thought about it too much.

“So…” Eli started. “What if they think working together is dating?”

“What?”

“Like, they spend a lot of time together fixing things. Maybe that’s what they like to do together.”

“That’s messed up.”

“I know, but nothing about this isn’t.”

Volker bit his lip, and moved his head from side to side as he considered it. “Maybe.”

“Ah man, I don’t know how I’m going to sleep tonight knowing that those two are together. It has to be like watching robots fall in love.” Eli rubbed his face in his hands. “I gotta go eat  lunch with Chloe right now, and I won’t enjoy that because I’m just going to keep thinking about this.”

Volker sighed as he waved goodbye to Eli, and took over his console.

 

* * *

 

Volker had given up. There was nothing to be done, and Brody and Rush were just going to have to figure out what they were doing on their own with no intervention from him.Well, not a whole lot of intervention. He had wanted to ask Brody out to drinks tonight, but instead he went back to his room and read an awful fantasy book that he had already finished three times.

When he got tired of that, he went for a walk. Sometimes, when he was bored, he would walk the hallways of Destiny and take mental notes on things that maybe needed to be fixed, or might have a relationship to another problem they were having. Usually, he only did this for an hour before sleep would beckon to him, but today he kept wandering. He ended up at the newly opened section, which he had not visited yet. Though he wasn’t sure if it mattered. Most of the time, new sections of the ship were almost exactly like old sections of the ship.

He heard a shuffling sound, and he froze before going through a half-opened door.

Cautiously, he leaned over and peered through with one eye. Sat cross-legged on the floor in front of a panel full of wiring was Brody, his fingers idly tracing the connections. Rush’s head was in his lap, his neck slightly craned to look at the laptop sitting on his stomach as he furiously typed.

He murmured something that Volker couldn’t understand, and Brody chuckled quietly at it. Suddenly, Volker felt like an interloper in a very private moment.

Eli’s suggestion that maybe that working was dating suddenly seemed insightful. As softly as he could, he backed away and made his way back down the dimly lit corridors.

Maybe this sort of made sense after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you noticed the reference to the other Stargate character Patrick Gilmore played, have a virtual cookie :)
> 
> As per usual, I have no beta.... so I expect there will be typos. Please let me know when you see one. 
> 
> I have more planned for Brush, but if it's torturous to you guys out there, I could be convinced to stop and just play it out in my head without sharing. ;)


End file.
